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State Fines Brady Sullivan $500K For Mishandling Toxic Soil From Mill West Site

Jack Rodolico / NHPR

The state is fining real estate developer Brady Sullivan $500,000 for breaking environmental regulations.

The case stems from construction of the Mill West apartments in Manchester, where tenants settled with the company in 2017 for lead exposures.

This case is unrelated. Here, the state says the Manchester-based company didn't properly check soil from the site for hazards before dumping it at another site they own in Londonderry.

The soil was found to contain toxic solvents known as TCEs a few years ago.

Mike Wimsatt, waste management director for the state Department of Environmental Services, says Brady Sullivan has now paid to properly dispose of the soil – and it’s not thought to have contaminated drinking water.

But Wimsatt says it was still a dangerous lapse – hence what he describes as an unusually hefty fine.

"It's extremely important when you're at a site where you know you might have some concerns that you adequately characterize and make sure the soils get handled properly,” he says. "If they aren't managed properly, they're essentially… uncontrolled – they could end up at a housing development, they could end up at a playground."

Fifty thousand dollars of the company’s fine will go into the state's hazardous waste cleanup fund.

The rest will pay for environmental projects in Bartlett – for a riverbank stabilization and landfill closure design – Londonderry – for cleanup at a city-conserved former apple orchard – and Manchester – for soil cleanup at a city lot that’s under development.

Read the DES order below:

Annie has covered the environment, energy, climate change and the Seacoast region for NHPR since 2017. She leads the newsroom's climate reporting project, By Degrees.
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